Taking a VCR to Russia

[Mathews Sarah A]

Justin,

PAL is compatible with Japanese and some European TVs, SECAM is compatible
with most European and also with Russian TVs.  The American system, NTSC, is
not compatible with either European or Russian TVs.  PAL can be used with
a Russian TV, but you will not see color and you can not record color, but
you can record off of a TV and watch videos in black and white.  SECAM is
your best option, and it's not worth the trouble to take an NTSC system
since you can't record or watch anything!

There is such a device called a transcoder that allows the conversion
between any of these three systems.  Also, there are VCRs that support
all three systems, especially easy to find would be a VCR that supports
NTSC and PAL.

Good luck!
Sarah Mathews
Graduate Student at Bryn Mawr College
Russian Department